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Agencies
Canberra
Australia’s flagship carrier Qantas is preparing to carry out a non-stop test flight between London and Sydney, less than a month after flying a record-breaking ultra-long haul between New York and Sydney.
Qantas on Thursday launched a one-off research flight that will carry about 50 people from London to Sydney nonstop, clocking up the longest commercial passenger flight in recent aviation history in the process.
The flight, which departed London’s Heathrow Airport at about 6 am local time, is part of Qantas’s “Project Sunrise,” a goal to introduce direct Sydney-London and Sydney-New York return services by 2022. The 17,800-kilometre trip is the second ultra-long haul research flight Qantas has conducted as part of a scientific study into minimizing jetlag for passengers and improving crew wellbeing.
Qantas is repurposing a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for the test flight with maximum fuel and a restricted passenger and baggage load, and no cargo, to allow the aircraft to operate the flight non-stop. It will carry around 50 passengers and crew.
The lighter load is needed to ensure the airplane can complete the record-breaking journey without refueling. In fact, the brand new jet will carry less than a full payload of fuel and should arrive with about 90-minutes’ worth to spare.
Among those on board will be Qantas employees and frequent fliers who will be fitted with monitors to track sleep patterns, movement, food consumption and use of in-flight entertainment.
The data is being gathered by researchers from the Charles Perkins Centre -- a University of Sydney medical research unit -- who will study how ultra-long-haul flying messes with health, wellbeing and body clocks.
A team from Melbourne’s Monash University is also taking part to analyze how the pilots and crew are affected. They’ll be monitored before, after and during the flight for levels of melatonin, the hormone that influences sleep cycles.
Data from the flight, which has the auxiliary purpose of delivering an airplane fresh from the Boeing factory in Seattle to Qantas’s home base, will be used by the airline to help make a case to Australian authorities to grant permission to run the service on a permanent basis.
“These are test flights to show the regulator, and to make sure that Qantas is convinced we can do them safely,” the airline’s CEO, Alan Joyce, said on the eve of the flight.
This will be the second time in history that a commercial airline has flown this route non-stop. In 1989, Qantas operated a Boeing 747-400 ferry flight non-stop between the two cities, which took more than 20 hours. Qantas started flying between London and Sydney in 1947, which initially took five days and six stops.
Last year, it started the Perth-London route, the only non-stop link between Australia and Europe, which takes around 17 hours. Last month, Qantas successfully completed the world’s longest non-stop flight on a commercial airliner - from New York to Sydney.
The 16,200-kilometre test flight took 19 hours and 16 minutes. While the London-Sydney flight is over 1,500 kilometres further than New York-Sydney, the duration is expected to be similar due to prevailing tail winds, Qantas said.
Canberra
Australia’s flagship carrier Qantas is preparing to carry out a non-stop test flight between London and Sydney, less than a month after flying a record-breaking ultra-long haul between New York and Sydney.
Qantas on Thursday launched a one-off research flight that will carry about 50 people from London to Sydney nonstop, clocking up the longest commercial passenger flight in recent aviation history in the process.
The flight, which departed London’s Heathrow Airport at about 6 am local time, is part of Qantas’s “Project Sunrise,” a goal to introduce direct Sydney-London and Sydney-New York return services by 2022. The 17,800-kilometre trip is the second ultra-long haul research flight Qantas has conducted as part of a scientific study into minimizing jetlag for passengers and improving crew wellbeing.
Qantas is repurposing a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for the test flight with maximum fuel and a restricted passenger and baggage load, and no cargo, to allow the aircraft to operate the flight non-stop. It will carry around 50 passengers and crew.
The lighter load is needed to ensure the airplane can complete the record-breaking journey without refueling. In fact, the brand new jet will carry less than a full payload of fuel and should arrive with about 90-minutes’ worth to spare.
Among those on board will be Qantas employees and frequent fliers who will be fitted with monitors to track sleep patterns, movement, food consumption and use of in-flight entertainment.
The data is being gathered by researchers from the Charles Perkins Centre -- a University of Sydney medical research unit -- who will study how ultra-long-haul flying messes with health, wellbeing and body clocks.
A team from Melbourne’s Monash University is also taking part to analyze how the pilots and crew are affected. They’ll be monitored before, after and during the flight for levels of melatonin, the hormone that influences sleep cycles.
Data from the flight, which has the auxiliary purpose of delivering an airplane fresh from the Boeing factory in Seattle to Qantas’s home base, will be used by the airline to help make a case to Australian authorities to grant permission to run the service on a permanent basis.
“These are test flights to show the regulator, and to make sure that Qantas is convinced we can do them safely,” the airline’s CEO, Alan Joyce, said on the eve of the flight.
This will be the second time in history that a commercial airline has flown this route non-stop. In 1989, Qantas operated a Boeing 747-400 ferry flight non-stop between the two cities, which took more than 20 hours. Qantas started flying between London and Sydney in 1947, which initially took five days and six stops.
Last year, it started the Perth-London route, the only non-stop link between Australia and Europe, which takes around 17 hours. Last month, Qantas successfully completed the world’s longest non-stop flight on a commercial airliner - from New York to Sydney.
The 16,200-kilometre test flight took 19 hours and 16 minutes. While the London-Sydney flight is over 1,500 kilometres further than New York-Sydney, the duration is expected to be similar due to prevailing tail winds, Qantas said.
